COVID-19 & eBUSINESS: Discussions and questions with entrepreneurs

We are going through an era that once again tests the resilience of companies in Greece and around the world. From 2010 until today, our country is going through an extremely difficult situation in business. With short breaks of optimism, most businesses struggle to the razor's edge for their survival and further growth.


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What is the reason that for some companies prospects and opportunities are created and for some others risks and threats?

How has the new crisis we are experiencing due to COVID 19 widened the gap between digitally advanced and digitally illiterate businesses?

Every day we talk to clients and partners and share our experiences and concerns due to the situation that has arisen and we are constantly forming an increasingly detailed view of the opportunities and threats that are emerging and how we can take advantage of them. Below we present 4 basic tips that will help you not only not to get lost but also to turn COVID into an opportunity for further development and growth.
 



#TIP 1 


Easy and cheap solutions that work did not exist, do not exist and probably will not exist in the future.
The COVID era has once again been a golden opportunity for some to take advantage of the stress and anxiety of entrepreneurs by providing supposedly easy and cheap solutions for instant introduction to the digital age and online sales, covering losses from their physical stores or businesses.
So if you really decide to go it cheap and risk the low bandwidth you are only fooling yourself. This is not the time to spend money without the proper consideration.



#TIP 2 

Organization is the key to success! What can I do with an excellent eshop or highly efficient marketing that can bring me sales if I can not properly serve these services? If I make mistakes in the orders I send, if I have delays for which my business is responsible or I do not properly inform customers about delays for which I am not responsible or if I present the wrong number of stocks, I will only succeed in dissatisfying my customers and to create a bad reputation for my brand that will follow me in the post-COVID era. So pay attention to details.


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#TIP 3 

Create a Business Plan adapted to the new era. Last minute solutions are good and of course we have to be flexible to react quickly to what is happening but that is not all. In the entrepreneurs we have found to have turned the crisis into an opportunity, we see a key element in common. They are cool and have studied the new data over a period of 1-2 years and not 1-2 months. They thought of the best and worst case scenario and prepared properly for the second one. In this way, whatever happens, they are prepared and ready to seize the opportunity if and when given.


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#TIP 4 

Secure supplies and partnerships. The lockdown was something new for everyone. None of us had imagined that we would have to be locked in our homes for such a long time. The biggest problem faced by many entrepreneurs was the shortage of goods that resulted from the difficulty of importing them due to COVID. No one can guarantee that this will not happen again. So it would be good not to leave issues of supplies and collaborations for the last minute because it is very sad that there is demand from customers and there is no possibility of selling due to lack of products
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The important thing is that we all remain optimistic and since we Greeks are used to the difficulties, it is certain that not only will we survive but we will also turn this crisis into a success!